“[UPS Inc., the parcel delivery service, has tacked a 9.5 percent fuel surcharge onto air and international shipments and a 2.75 percent charge onto ground shipments, but that] doesn't cover everything, ... We look at this thing from a competitive standpoint . . . and about what is the right thing to do in maintaining relationships with customers.”
“We do consider The UPS Store the premier retail channel for our business. And to quote Mr. Eskew, we are 'laser focused' on helping store owners grow their business.”
“Our intention was to make it easier to access and use the tools UPS.com offers. This issue never came up when we piloted this software. No customer ever brought it up.”
“We sent out thousands of software packages, and we've received a significant number of telephone calls [from unhappy users]. It's an inconvenience to customers, but we can walk them through a fix on the telephone.”
“When the software is installed, if [a user] doesn't have the latest version of [Microsoft's] Internet Explorer 5.5, it will automatically upgrade his browser and put up the UPS home page as his home page. The software doesn't give you a choice of whether or not you want to upgrade. Our software developers understood that if it was upgraded, [a customer's] browser had to go to our home page.”
“Certainly other delivery companies are beginning to realize the value of home delivery. But you couldn't get a whole lot more fierce than you already were, ... Even if you look at it and say it's not as profitable as b-to-b deliveries, it's still contributing to our fixed costs. The more volume you can win, you can create density to make it more an more profitable.”
